600 mm, 1/100s, f/6.3, ISO 320, flash fill
I know I have some friends out there, and as far away as South Africa, who like to hear about how our little owlets are doing. The weather has been kinda “crappy” during the last few days but I try to drive down to the Mississippi River after work several times a week in order to see how the young Great Horned Owls develop. For those who do not always read my blog, this is the first time during the last four years that the Great Horned Owl is raising two young owls. Any other year before was only one owlet in the nest.
Today it seemed again that the juveniles are in good condition and there was a brief moment when I saw both of them at the same time. The mother perched in trees nearby most of the time. She was at the nest only once while I was there. Mother owl went always back to the same trees and branches during the last week because she probably can observe the nest very good from all of her preferred spots. She must trust me, because she turns quite often her back to me and rather looks over to the Mississippi and perhaps watches for some prey.
600 mm, 1/100s, f/6.3, ISO 320, flash fill
Rain and dark clouds during the last evenings made the photography very challenging. There wasn’t an ounce, and not even a gram of nice light! In these conditions I like to master flash fill for my images, with all its quirks, like overexposed branches, red eyes, or just dealing with the settings in camera and in the flash. The missing contrast on an owlet’s head or body in low light makes it difficult to obtain always focus for a sharp image and not every picture is a keeper. I know, this doesn’t sound like fun but I really enjoy the process of trial, error, and improvement, and it makes me happy if at the end of the day there is an image on the memory card that tells the story…